About some possible empirical evidences in favor of a cosmological time variation of the speed of light

Laboratoire U3B, UMR 6204 of CNRS, Faculté des Sciences - 2 rue de la Houssinière, Nantes, France, EU

Corresponding author: Yves-Henri.Sanejouand@univ-nantes.fr

Received: 4 October 2009
Accepted: 16 November 2009

Abstract

Possible empirical evidences in favor of the hypothesis that the speed of light decreases by a few centimeters per second each year are examined. Lunar laser ranging data are found to be consistent with this hypothesis, which also provides a straightforward explanation for the so-called Pioneer anomaly, that is, a time-dependent blue-shift observed when analyzing radio tracking data from distant spacecrafts, as well as an alternative explanation for both the apparent time-dilation of remote events and the apparent acceleration of the Universe. The main argument against this hypothesis, namely, the constancy of fine-structure and Rydberg constants, is discussed. Both of them being combinations of several physical constants, their constancy implies that, if the speed of light is indeed time-dependent, then at least two other “fundamental constants” have to vary as well. This puts severe constraints on the development of any future varying–speed-of-light theory.